Thinking back on some of my favorite places to start this blogging thing off. Whenever someone asks me what my favorite place I stayed at was I almost always talk about Two Guns, Arizona. When we stayed at this ghost town that ended up having a crazier story than I originally thought.

The Skoolie on my skoolie!

We have been carabussing with our friend Dean (click his name to view his YouTube channel) for a little while. We met Dean in Quartzite, Arizona at an event called Skooliepalooza. Dean is awesome and we became friends pretty quick! We both wanted to see the hot air balloon festival in Lake Havasu, so we started traveling together. After the festival, where we saw zero balloons go up!, we talked about continuing to travel together for a little while longer. We were both heading towards the Grand Canyon and had fun camping together. On the way to the Grand Canyon we went on a ton of adventures together and made some wild stories along the way, thinking back on it I could probably write a entire post just about the shenanigans we were up to!

The buses at the beginning of historic Route 66

Dean pulling into Two Guns

After the Grand Canyon Dean told us about this ghost town with an abandoned zoo he wanted to see. The town was also listed online as a free place to camp, so we almost had to go! Two Guns is located off of Route 66, east of Flagstaff. The drive there was nice and driving on Route 66 is always fun in a 34ft bus! I got so excited as we arrived to the town. Almost everything as you pulled in was covered with graffiti. The building used to be a little gas station and convenience store along old Route 66. As you drove back farther there was a few more buildings and a pool! When we started living on the road I got back into skating a little and thought it would be fun to ride in the pool! I never done this before but it ended up being super fun riding down the deep end, around this little patch of ice. As you go farther back you we found the entrance to the zoo! We parked our buses right in front of the old entrance and looked online to see what was around to explore. Dean told us about this cave he read about called The Death Cave and as soon as he did, I we knew we had to find it.

Norm being a mountain lion at the old zoo entrance

The story about the Death Cave, well according to Wikipedia is: "Two Guns was the site of a mass murder of Apaches by their Navajo enemies in 1878. A group of Apaches had hid in a cave at Two Guns to avoid detection, but were discovered by the Navajos, who lit sagebrush fires at the cave's exit and shot any Apaches trying to escape. The fire asphyxiated 42 Apaches, after which they were stripped of their valuables. The murder site is referred to as the "death cave".

Photo found on Google of the original entrance to the zoo

Inside the Death Cave

Bat inside the cave

That night it got to dark to look for a cave. We had very little cell service so we couldn't use our phones to find coordinates for the cave either. We spent the night roaming around the zoo portion and exploring farther back, where there were even more buildings! I would like to also note that everything from the zoo on was pretty much graffiti free and pretty well taken care of, which impressed me! We took tons of photos and Dean made a video for his YouTube channel. The next morning Dean, Norm, and I got up and almost immediately started searching for this cave. We wondered around for a little while, eventually running into a couple that was visiting from Australia. We talked to them for a while and found out they were also looking for the Death Cave! We traveled in separate directions as them at first but ended up meeting up again after one of them found this sketchy bridge that led down to this cave. We knew they found it! Walking across the "bridge" wasn't easy and holding Norm across made it extra exciting! As we walking more into the cave we found this little room. We ended up all crawling into this little room and as we did Dean started sharing the story to them about the history of the cave. It was pretty creepy honestly! After leaving that room we walked further into the cave. The walls got narrower and narrower, until we didn't feel comfortable going any farther. We took more photos and videos and then left the cave. We swapped stories about life on the road with the Australian couple, and what it is like living in a bus. They loved Norm and the journey we have been on the past 6 years. Dean and I ended the night with a campfire, like we always did.

Caveman Norm

relaxing after trying to skate this pool

If you are ever traveling near this area, I would highly recommend taking the time to explore this little ghost town. You could easily spend an entire day walking around taking photos. The roads weren't that crazy, considering some that our buses have been through! The view is incredible, and at night the stars shine crazy bright! I love seeing things and places that have a story, and Two Guns did not disappoint!